#i think this is post story? in the sense that theyre traveling again by now

[jekyllnahyena]

did some more background training for my horror cowboys WHOOP (really wanted to try my hand at sorta blueish muted colours!)

[vierandancer]

I have thoughts around FFXIV and the latest interview with Yoshi-P. Dawntrail spoilers!

So, the big thing I want to write about is my thoughts around the Scions. Because I love the Scions to pieces and, from what I glean with this interview, we're going to be moving away from their involvement.

I totally understand, narratively, why one would want to do that. Our cast is already too big! And I do take heart in the fact that they'll say "oh we may only see the twins one expansion", etc. That makes sense to me. After all, Y'sh was injured for a majority of main Stormblood, etc. That all is fine.

I do not agree that they've developed the Scions fully, at least not Y'shtola. But if that's where they want to leave them and let the players fill in the gaps, OK. But give them believable "endings" or exits from the story.

Estinien is allowed to keep wandering like he did before. That's fair. The twins may want to stick around and do more diplomat work -- again, that's fine. We didn't really need them in DT, I think.

Thancred and Urianger? I think we need to open the portal to the First and shove them back to live with Ryne and Gaia, training them, helping the First and the Empty recover. I think that would be 100% reasonable.

Krile can focus on the Students of Baldesion now that she has her answers around her origins, or she can work with those in Solution 9.

G'raha Tia? This is where I'm a little dubious, because his whole thing is LEMME GO ON AN ADVENTURE WITH YOU, BESTIE. I think he should take the role Wuk Lamat did as far as being our mouthpiece during the Meracydia expansion. Kind of like how Alphy spoke for WOL in Heavensward, etc. I get it, we NEED that kind of character because we are voiceless.

Y'shtola is hard to put away because even if she was buried writing her thesis, she would come assist us. So either kill her off permanently, lock her away in some post-world-travel-experimental mishap, or injure her again. I love Y'shtola so, so, SO MUCH. SO MUCH. I don't want her to die. But give her an appropriate ending/reason to be busy and unable to help us.

The reasoning is practically baked in, and I'm praying that the writing team does our Scions justice. Even just saying "theyre too busy" is FINE until we get to catastrophic events! Or flash over to see them help fight wherever they are locally!

Just don't have them within reach and then drop them to a cameo. It isn't fair. Especially with how intensely found family everything was in Endwalker. Don't soldify my family and then rip them away.

As for the slow setup...

It makes me wonder exactly what they want us to know about the peoples of Tural. Are we supposed to just keep themes in mind? Or is Tural very very important to the plot?

Since it does have the Serpent of Not!Ronka in the one dungeon, are we saying that perhaps we'll be revisiting the zones over and over, similar to a new Eorzea? It doesn't feel quite big enough to do that, but maybe. I am intrigued, and willing to trust the writing team's setup. I appreciate that Yoshi-P acknowledged that VERY slow pacing, at least.

I'm also glad he didn't acknowledge the controversy around Wuk Lamat. Honestly, it comes down to preference, and I think that her role really helped prove one thing: players don't want WOL to be the background character. If she was better received, I worry we might have gotten that sort of character-guide-per-expansion moving forward.

My hopes for the future include:

Our new big enemy, if not a big finale enemy, is a fellow shard of Azem that destroys our crystal, therefore not letting us summon people anymore (we just use the animation we did before)

the Serpent of Ronka is a sundered form of a more powerful familiar of azem, possibly with the stupid face because that's an Azem thing to do

FF7-themed expansion, I want to fight Jenova

Some giant serpent is feeding on the lifestream/aetehrial sea and that is what allowed meteion's influence to hit us so hard -- this is an existing theory , not mine

JUST GIVE ME MORE INN ROOM INTERACTIONS WITH MY SCIONS IFT HEYRE IN THE WORLD, I WANT CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS TO CONTINUE EVEN IF THE SCIONS ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN. FUCK IT, JUST HAVE THEM SEND ME A LETTER IF NEED BE.

[corvidiss]

some notes and additions i found on this post which i love, collated here for the sole purpose of me having them in one place, and i guess also for other interested parties

(apologies to those tagged hereafter if you wish not to have been tagged)

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From @zarohk's reblog:

Even better: “I suppose when you write this, you’ll claim that…” cutting directly to Watson’s completely inaccurate voiceover.

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From @alwaysanoriginal's reblog:

#film ends with Watson talking about him and his wife via narration but in reality he and Holmes settle in for a nice night by the fire #and then Watson gets up and gives a distracted Holmes a peck on the lips and walks out of the room / out of frame #last scene is Holmes’ private smile while Watson the narrator says something blasè about hoping his good friend was having a nice evening #understated yet thematically relevant note to end on to abruptly make a core thesis clear

(this is adorable i love it omg)

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From @ll-again's reblog:

On screen: Sherlock Holmes rabidly explaining to Watson that heliocentricism is a giant cover up, aliens are real, and the Pope is definitely in on it Watson, narrating: "My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it."

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From @e-b-reads's reblog:

#the one thing i wld add is that i think watson wld often be like #'holmes was astonishing and managed to do xyz while i stood aside like a fool' #and then actually onscreen watson wld be in the midst of the action

(YES. this.)

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From @svperbitch's reblog:

#My dream adaptation #I love Watson the unreliable narrator who will try and make Holmes look good at any cost #Even when describing his failures it only serves to emphasise how great he usually is #And I know for a fact he downplays his own role #And more than a few crimes because fuck the police

(hell yeah hard agree)

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From @keepthemacramesecret's reblog:

#honestly feel lile this would be the most accurate adaptation of the og stories vibes #like there rly is the indication that the True Story #lies somewhere in between watsons glamorous romantic adventure stories #and holmes clinical analysis of the pure facts #like we get little mentions from watson of holmes complaints abt how he writes the stories #and it rly would b cool to hav an adaptation that played w that contrast #where neither of them is telling the full story bc theyre prioritising different aspects

(THIS. This is FASCINATING. I never thought of Holmes' frustration with Watson's romanticisation beyond "he's grumpy watson doesn't focus on the facts" and thinking about it this way a: makes much more sense actually, and b: makes Holmes' criticism of Watson's writing less unfounded or petty. and putting it together to bring out the fact that neither of them are telling the full truth, and the real events lie somewhere between their depictions/perceptions?? incredible. I love the poetry of it)

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From @keirgreeneyes's reblog:

If Taika & Rhys & David do Sherlock Holmes, they'd be super smart to do it this way!!! #sherlock #adaptation #comedy #but please do make it queer too #lots you could hide in the subtext #but please let them be canon queer #please

(omg taika and rhys would absolutely slay this you are so incredibly right. they'd get the comedy and queer aspects in so well i am longing for this now)

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From @onyx-void's reblog:

#at the end it's shown it's a police interrogation going over what happened and Watson was just doing his best #not to incriminate either himself or Holmes about the Many Many Crimes they commited to solve the case

(HFHDBBFDJS YES. this is iconic and hilarious i LOVE this addition)

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And for a couple of recommendations I intend to check out at some point:

From @madenthusiasms's reblog:

There’s a Russian Sherlock Holmes from the early 2010s on YouTube with more or less this premise. The “real” Sherlock Holmes is short, impulsive, hyperactive, and can’t box or play violin worth shit.

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From @whether-to-screech's reblog:

The Suicide Club, or the Adventures of a Titled Person, 1981 has this exact thing and the effect is just as good as described.

Concept: Sherlock Holmes adaptation with Watson providing film noir style voiceover narration, except it’s soon apparent that Watson is a somewhat less-than-reliable narrator.

Though the tone and content of Watson’s voiceover is broadly consistent with the original stories, when compared with the accompanying on-screen events it becomes clear that Watson-the-narrator is frequently, at the very least, delicately understating how things really went down, and occasionally lying through his teeth, particularly when the on-screen “truth” would make Holmes or himself look foolish.

While neither the version of events given by the narration nor the version of events concurrently depicted on screen are particularly comedic in themselves, the combined effect of juxtaposing the two is often outright farcical.

[imjeralee]

can you maybe write for Childe, Zhongli, Link, and Human!Revali where theyre immortal or live for a very long time, and one day their s/o gets hurt and dies in their arms? then years later they stumble across them again, theyre a different person but they have the same soul. yet.. they dont remember them right away...but then they fall in love again? im feeling angsty, apologies

Hi anon! thanks for the ask and sorry for the delay!! I’m afraid I wasn’t able to write a Link and Human!Revali headcanon for the time being (I will write and post Link and Revali HCs later, sorry!!!!!) but I was able to write something for Childe and Zhongli for now so here goes.

PS they’re really long so it’s below the cut. I might as well have written some fanfics on this since they’re pretty much stories XD

Childe: 

WARNINGS for violence/blood here -

When he’s dispatched the last of your attackers, he rushes back to your side and finds you lying on the ground. At first he thinks you’re playing as you usually tease each other, and so he drops beside you with a hefty sigh before he scoops you up and into his arms.

“Hey, you good? Don’t tell me those guys gave you a run for your money,” he says, grinning. He’s out of breath, sweating slightly.

When you don’t reply, however, at first he thinks you’re still teasing but it’s quickly replaced with concern. He knows something is wrong. You let out a pained moan and close your eyes, murmuring his name weakly. His playful, jovial attitude dissolves into panic. Childe sits up properly with you in his arms, giving you a little shake and asking what’s wrong.

As he turns you round in his arms, he notices you’re bleeding profusely from a grievous wound. No longer smiling, panic takes ahold of him. “What happened? No, no, no, this can’t be. This can’t be happening. Stay with me Y/N, stay with me.” Planting his hands on the sides of your face, making you look at him. “Look at me. That’s it. Just keep looking at me. You’re gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay.” He keeps chanting that over and over again as he glances around the area frantically before he attempts to lift you off the ground but you stop him. It’s too late.

Instead, you merely hold his hand firmly and he entwines your fingers together and you see the fear and despair in his eyes. You tell him you’re not going to make it but he shakes his head. 

“Everything’s gonna be okay, you hear? Teucer’s waiting for you to take him to the seaside, remember? We were…we were meant to go to the seaside together.” 

As he speaks, he holds you tightly and he feels your laborious breathing against his chest and he keeps talking until you go still and quiet in his arms and he stops. At first, he can’t bear to bring himself to look at you and holds you firmly against his chest, resting his chin atop your head, closing his eyes. 

Then he begins to weep.

A broken man, Childe vows revenge, swearing vengeance on your killers. In a blind rage, he spends countless of years hunting them down one by one. It’s not hard to achieve considering he has all the time in the world. His most recent excursion leads him to the final ringleader who lives in a citadel. Childe kills all the guards and everyone else who stands in his way until he reaches his target. At first, the man fights him but Childe overpowers him easily.

“Who the hell are you?” the man screams.

Childe rips off his mask to reveal his face. “Remember me?” He snarls.

The man goes wide-eyed and tries to run away with Childe in pursuit, but before Childe can reach him, the man has grabbed a random person in his way and thrown them onto Childe’s path as a human shield.

“Father!?” Childe hears the person exclaiming in shock as they’re roughly shoved towards Childe’s direction. Childe realises the man has grabbed their kid to use as the human shield. 

Disgusted, Childe is about to deal the finishing blow until he catches them mid fall and their gazes meet; those eyes. They remind him of….you

And something deep inside him screams STOP! And Childe is briefly brought to a halt in his rampage. He doesn’t recognise them, but he feels your soul within.

What the frick? You had reincarnated into this bastard’s kid??? He’s shocked for a brief moment and a few guards who are still alive manage to sneak up on him. Childe returns to action mode and fights off his attackers, grabs you, and whilst he doesn’t get the chance to kill his target, he escapes the citadel with you in his clutches and you’re left screaming for help.

You’ve been abducted by Childe and he’s taken you to the forest where he pins you against the tree and forces you to look at him, left and right, up and down. Whilst you plead and beg for mercy with your eyes squeezed shut and knees quaking, he lets go of you harshly. He doesn’t want to believe it’s you, but there’s no doubt about it. He senses your soul within. He recognises your eyes. You’ve reincarnated. 

“Show me.” He demands.

“…What?”

“Your birthmark. The one on your shoulder?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have any-”

“Don’t lie to me.”

He turns you round and pulls on your shirt to expose the back of your shoulder where your birthmark is. Whilst you wonder how the hell he knows you have a mark, he lets go of you then and you quickly pull your clothes back on properly, face red. What the hell!!! 

Childe just staring at you in brief shock. 

“It’s you. It’s really you.”

A lot of emotions are going through him right now; he’s relived and so damn happy, at the same time he’s like confused and angry by the whole situation

But the first thing he does is hug you tightly.

And the first thing you do is grab the nearest rock and bludgeon his head with it.

He’s taken aback and lets go of you, stumbling backwards with a bleeding head but he easily shakes off your assault and throws the rock to the side and you’re terrified, inching away as he goes, “Did you think that would kill me? I’ll let you in a little secret; I’m immortal.” 

Not really sure who/what you’re dealing with, you flee but you hear him yelling, “You can run but you can’t hide!”

And as you toss a glance over your shoulder, he’s still standing there for a split second before he promptly vanishes from his spot. This weird cat and mouse game ensues with Childe stalking you through the forest and you’re either trying to run or hide until he finally catches you and pins you against the ground. You can’t escape.

“Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you,” he murmurs, but you don’t believe him. “Just…stay with me for a few days, okay?”

It doesn’t matter; over the next few days, you’re effectively Childe’s prisoner and he seems to enjoy teasing you; he tried to talk to you but you refused and ignored him. It was quite difficult to do so especially when its time for dinner and he’s cooking grilled tiger fish - which is actually your favourite food - and although you’re salivating, he looks at you and grins and waves the grilled tiger fish on a stick in front of you, going, “Hungry?”

You turn away with a frown and he shrugs, “Suit yourself. But I know it’s your favourite.”

You’re confused and about to ask him, but you hear him eating and throw a glance at him to see he’s chomping down and your stomach rumbles. You choose to sleep instead to ignore the hunger but you wake up during the night, starving.

“Eat this,” says a voice, and a grilled tiger fish is plopped down in front of you and Childe is there, crouching by your side. He leaves you alone so you can eat.

You’re surprised by your captor’s behaviour and you initially hate him for what he’s done however he doesn’t harm you in any way. He doesn’t keep you tied up or anything and he’s quite entertained should you ever try to run away because he’ll always just catch up to you and just pick you up and throw you over his shoulder or something and carry you back. 

Your travels with Childe continues but you don’t get the feeling that he hates you or wants to hurt you in anyway. In fact, he keeps surprising you by providing you with your favourite food, favourite drinks and other stuff. It confuses you and though you want to ask him, you’re a little too afraid as to what he might just tell you. Some days you even come across him looking at you a little forlornly but just when you notice, he changes in a split second and will grin at you. Even when it’s nighttime and you’re meant to take a bath, he won’t perv on you. When you arrive at the next village, he asks for a nice room for the two of you and allows you to take the bed, eat as much as you want etc etc. In fact, he’s….taking care of you. He even starts buying you things and whilst you turn down everything he offers, you see his expression crumble and you don’t know what he’s trying to do.

One night he sleeps in the open and you grab a knife, about to drive it in his throat although you’re not sure how much good that’ll do but then you hear him murmur, “You don’t know it…but I’ve been looking for you forever…and I’ve been waiting for you for such a long time… and you end up being the kid of that bastard…the one who killed you, the one who took you away from me….the one who started all this in the first place…”

Confused by what you had just heard, you watch him in steely silence before you slowly lower your hand and put away the knife. The next day he goes “I know what you were trying to do last night. Why didn’t you do it?” 

“I didn’t want to. I’m not a killer like you.” You quip back, but he merely laughs. 

The days continue but the dynamic seems to have changed; when Childe gets you something, you start thanking him and he goes red in the face and you also begin to feel weird around him. Before long, you’re both having food together, having some conversations and you’re accustomed to travelling around with him. He’ll always keep you safe and make sure you have a warm bed each night too. Sometimes when he looks at you, you don’t look away either.

Before long, your father’s men finally catches up; they begin to hunt you and Childe down and you’re stunned when you realised you’re about to get rescued. Something terrible flickers in your mind - maybe you don’t want to be rescued and you want to stay with Childe? After all, he’s taken you to so many places and you’ve seen so many things. Your father kept you cooped up in the citadel for years and this is really the first time you’ve experienced freedom.

Also, you don’t want Childe to get caught. You want him to run away. But he won’t run away without you. And when you question this, he goes, “I can’t afford to lose you again!!”

During the chase, a bunch of arrows are fired towards your direction and you’re worried about Childe, but when the arrows are about to hit you, you squeeze your eyes shut but nothing happens. Reopening your eyes, you see Childe has shield you with his body.

You’re surrounded and as Childe falls, collapsing into your arms, he’s quickly captured and you are returned home. But everything feels boring and dull now, and your father seems more occupied in torturing Childe than checking to see if you’re alright. You ask your father what happened between him and Childe and he tells you he killed his lover many years ago and now Childe has been seeking revenge. When you ask him why he killed Childe’s lover, your father just laughs and says there was no reason.

You’re conflicted. What is this? Why do you feel pity for Childe, and anger towards your father? Why do you feel you are more on Childe’s side now?

I’m in love with him, you realise -- much to your shock. 

Your father announces Childe will be executed by dawn and you hastily rush to where they’re holding him, hoping not to be seen. When you find Childe, he’s badly beaten but still alive and you quickly unshackle him and as he sees you freeing him, he smiles at you; when the last of his shackle is unlocked, he falls forwards but you catch him and your gazes meet.

“Go,” you whisper.

“Not without you. Come with me.” He murmurs, placing a hand to your cheek. “I can’t lose you again.”

You don’t even need to think twice, nodding.

Zhongli

He didn’t think you would ever die... and in his arms no less. He found you after the battle and when he saw that you were grievously wounded, he could not believe his eyes. He was too late and unable to save you, so he merely held you in his arms as you told him with weak breaths that this was the end. He promises that he’ll find you again and holds you tightly as he feels your warmth slowly disappearing, the life escaping from your eyes and then you were simply…gone

For a while, he merely sat with you in the ashen field, cradling you tightly to his chest before he picked you up and retreated silently. No one would see him for several centuries following that but it was rumoured he went to the mountains to bury you. He was in mourning.

Zhongli never forgot you and his love for you never went away so he’s comforted by the fact that your soul will be reincarnated albeit into a different vessel and as he promised, begins to search for your whereabouts when it’s finally time.

He roams the world to no end and many decades pass. Eventually he gets tired and one day he even passes out from exhaustion, reverting to a dragon form to recuperate.

And you’re walking home from the mountains and you come across this huge dragon resting on a rock and you’re like oh my archon. But it looks like he’s sick so as you approach nervously and poke at his body gently with a stick (no response), and also press your ear against his scaly belly (he’s breathing and you can hear a heartbeat), you’re aware the dragon is still alive. You quickly rush home to grab some makeshift medicine made from herbs and return to the sick dragon

Zhongli too weary to open his eyes or lift his head, and as he drifts in and out of consciousness, he thinks he hears your voice and he’s comforted by the familiarity and as you sit with him, stroking his horns and mane, he kind of inches towards you and into your arms. As the day progresses, the sun is particularly harsh so you set up little parasols and pull huge leaves over his head to provide as much shade as possible. Occasionally the dragon has nightmares but you’re able to calm him down by petting him 

When it gets dark, you need to head home but you’re a little reluctant, so you leave behind some food for him and drape a blanket over his body (though this doesn’t cover him much). However, during the night, it’s thunder and lightning and you get worried for the dragon so you rush back out and you find the dragon being battered by the rain whilst curled up into a tight ball and shivering under the blanket so you quickly try to move him but oh lawd he heavy and suddenly the blanket gets blown away by the wind when he lifts a claw so you race after it and end up almost falling off a cliff - to your surprise, the dragon swoops down to save you and you faint but before you black out, you think you see a young man in the dragon’s place, staring at you with much intrigue

He has the same eyes as the dragon

That night, you have strange dreams of that man. He acts as if he knows you, calls you by a different name and you are also his lover. The dream is long, but ends with your demise - which forces you to wake up in a panic

You’re surrounded by the coiled up dragon who has gotten better from your care but when he wakes up, he’s cautious and observes you for a few moments. 

You and this dragon staring at each other until you slowly reach a hand to touch him 

Your hand lands over his snout and you’re surprised he’s allowing you to pat him, but whatever, you’re super happy at his recovery and you can go home now. It’s time to part ways and as you head towards the direction of your home, you throw glances over your shoulder to see the dragon watching you silently

On the way, you think about the dragon and the strange dreams and attract the attention of a group of treasure hoarders who are wandering around the wilderness. However, to your surprise, you are saved by a young man - and it’s the very man from your dreams! He manages to defeat the bandits but you see he’s hurt and he almost collapses if you weren’t there to catch him. The moment he landed in your arms and that same sense of familiarity swept over you. You’re quick enough to react and sweep those thoughts away and bring the poor man home, lugging his polearm over your back along with your basket

You look after this young man and nurse him back to health. During this time, he looks at you strangely and when he’s sleeping, his calls out the name you were called in the dream. When you think he’s having a nightmare and you go over to check if he’s ok, giving him a little shake on the arm, he throws his arms around you and holds you close, begging you not to leave him and that he had spent eons looking for you. When you tell him he’s got the wrong person…it’s as though he comes to his senses and he quickly releases you, apologising for his behaviour and thanking you for his hospitality

He tells you his name is Zhongli and because he’s injured, you give him the spare room in the back and take care of him. During this period of interaction, at first it’s quite strange and maybe a little awkward, because hell he is an insanely attractive man (he can’t be single, no way) and you’re bustling around the house, doing chores/cleaning up or tending to your garden and he watches you the entire time and this goes on for a few days before he joins in to help when you’re hanging up the laundry though you don’t want him to help because he’s injured but he assures you he wants to do his part. 

So Zhongli becomes a part of your everyday life where during the day and you both have breakfast together before you head to the market together to buy groceries and later, he accompanies you to pick herbs in the mountain. 

One day you’re tired so he sits with you and massages your leg and you’re so embarrassed but at the same time, your heart is beating like crazy. He even carries you down the steep path all the way home. 

At night time and you sit together on the front porch watching fireflies and chatting idly for hours. 

He ends up staying for a long time and one day, when it’s time to redress his wound, you notice he’s completely healed - and it looks like he actually healed up a while ago. You blink in confusion before turning to him and he looks at you before he reaches for your hand and holds it firmly, smoothing his thumb over the back of your hand

A distant memory, more like deja vu, flickers through your mind and you realise Zhongli has held your hand like this before and you run out of the room, confused. Zhongli worried he scared you off so he doesn’t pursue you

When it’s night, you dream again but it’s becoming so vivid you end up confused the next morning, waking up in an unfamiliar house and in an unfamiliar body and screaming for Zhongli. As you calm down, he holds you in his arms and it reminds you of the dream you had when you died in his embrace. You briefly forget yourself for a moment before murmuring Zhongli’s name - and it reminds him of how you used to say his name eons ago and he gets sentimental, giving in because he knows you are the reincarnation of his lover and when you kiss, that’s when everything floods back and you remember everything 

Finally reunited with your lover, you share an embrace, determined not to be separated ever again

[sadwizardgirl]

My Campaign 2 Thoughts

Alrighty folks. We're here. We made it. I’m running on like, 3 hours of sleep and my coffee hasn't kicked in yet so bear with me if I ramble/don't make sense. I’ll take things by character I think? 

Once I finally typed everything I wanted out, I decided to put a keep reading thing. Its a long one I’m so sorry haha. But yeah, click on it if you want to hear someone’s tired ramblings about how much they love the Mighty Nein. Obviously spoilers below... <3

One last thing - I want to say thank you to everyone who I have interacted on here with. I would have never, ever thought that I would live blog Critical Role when I started watching it. And because I have, it makes me happy that I’ve found lots of nice Critters like me to follow, like, reblog, laugh and cry with all at the same time. You guys are really cool, so thanks for letting me be a small part of it all <3 

Molly/Kingsley - 

I’m honestly not fully shocked that we didn’t get Molly back after all that. I think Tal has said that Molly is gone and will stay gone. Maybe this is how Molly was when he first woke up, but we obviously didn’t see that part, and neither did Yasha. So honestly, the only people to know would be the people down at the circus. I’m personally okay with the differences in Kingsley and Molly but I like that Kingsley wanted to call Molly his brother at least and learn about him later on. Remember when Molly said he didn't want to learn who his previous self/selves were? The pirate life for Kingsley is --- interesting haha. I’m not hating it, I can definitely see a Jack Sparrow kind of vibe. I just didn't think Tal would go for a pirate type life for him. Thats all :) 

Cad - 

I’m also not surprised at what Cad chose either. It was interesting to see his whole EMPATHY routine with Trent. Thats been a side of Cad no one has seen. I know I’ve seen some people say that they were sad that after all this adventuring, that Cad would just chose to live at the Blooming Grove and never leave again. But didn't Tal say that Cad would take walks out of there and explore for segments of time? Like 6 months, then a year, then a couple years. I could have sworn he said that and that he would go visit his friends in those spans too. But I could have totally imagined it/took it that way. 

Veth- 

This totally makes sense. I was sad to see her go before the whole Trent thing, I would have loved to see her stand by Calebs side during it but I get it, She missed her family and they would see each other again anyway. I 100% would love if the M9 had a summer camp. Like, I’m just saying. That needs to be a one shot. I don't have much else to say other than I’m glad that this is the ending for Veth and nothing else. 

Yasha- 

Again, I’m super happy with this one. It makes sense that she would want to go see her wife and the whole Stormlord thing???? Fucking awesome. I’m glad that Yasha has finally found peace and love with someone and is content. Thats all I want for Yasha. I’m glad that Kingsley seeks her out to find out about Molly too. 

Beau - 

WOW. Okay. So not only does she help take down Trent but also her dad stuff? Fucking great! I’m so glad that Beau has gotten to this point in her life. Not only has she brought down corrupt people, but also learned to love throughout everything she's been through. I’m sorry, I with my tired brain can think of more good things but I’m just super happy about this. 

Fjord -

For some reason, Fjord’s ending made me cry. I don't know if its because its been awhile since we’ve gotten true Fjord lore stuff where Travis absolutely NAILS the roleplaying or what. But literally as soon as he raised his hand to say hi to Vandran, I started crying. He’s been looking for answers for so long and he finally got them. I think its very on brand that he just sailed out willy nilly knowing what happens but at least Matt was merciful haha. I think That plus his love for Jester and suggesting they find a place was so very sweet and totally them. I’m sort of glad that he left his ending so vague. Because imagine the sea one shots we can have with Fjord going to Darktow or finding Sabien once and for all etc. 

Jester - 

I’m --- I’m torn with Jester. I’m glad that Jester wants to travel more and see the world still and thats what she's doing with Fjord. I think I’m more of torn just because I’m so used to Jester being SO over the top with everything she does (in a good way) but then I guess that means she's maturing and growing up. I’m glad that she left her ending vague as well for the same reasons as Fjord. SIDENOTE: It’ll be interesting to see if any of this leads into the VM vs M9 show off and if there's going to be canon involved or what. 

Caleb - 

I left Caleb for last. Not only because he's been my favorite character all campaign long. But because most of the buzz is coming from his ending. I’ll preface this first --- I’ve never been an outright Essek/Caleb shipper. I’ve loved their moments together and am not against them in any shape or form. I’m just not one of the die hards shippers. Same with Caleb/Astrid/Wulf. 

BUT - With that being said, I’m very happy with Calebs ending. I’ve seen some people that are mad that he didn't do what he set out to do - which was take down the corruption. But Liam said that he sees that aspect of his life as a life long endeavor. So just because he takes up the teaching gig - which I’m so happy with btw; more on that in a bit- doesn't mean he stopped. You can root out the corruption from within and I think Caleb started to realize that was going to be the best way. I’m glad he didn't take the place of Trent. I think things could have gone horribly wrong even if he was at the top. Am I thrilled that Astrid is there? Not particularly no but its better than Trent. Caleb being a teacher makes so much sense. At the beginning of the campaign, Nott was always telling people that Caleb was the one teaching her the magic she had, plus the trading notes with Yussa and Essek over the years. It all leads to him teaching. Finally being the teacher --- the right teacher for the future generations of wizards. He was never going to accomplish that in Trents place. 

Now --- the elephant in the room, Essek. I’m 100% okay with this part of Caleb’s story. I’m glad that he did go back to Aeor and learn what he could. I think its what Essek said. That he wouldn't change his past because it led him to that moment with Caleb, but then still offered to help Caleb if thats what he wanted to do for himself. I’m happy that Caleb finally let go of the part of his past that kept his guilt so present. He’ll always remember his parents and what he did, but he's allowing himself to walk through that door and to start finally healing. Let me tell you how much I ugly cried when we finally heard what his plan had been all these years AND what that second book was that he never told us about. Liam O’Brien you poetic son of a bitch I love you so much. But damn did I ugly cry literally during that whole time. Okay sorry, now Essek. I think them realizing the age differences, being in the relationship for however long they were but then remained friends is so very much like both of them. They are both logical people. To me this makes so much sense. I think I’m in the minority here but it does. Essek will outlive the rest of the M9 so of course they realized eventually there was going to be this elephant in the room when Caleb grew old. I’d like to think Caleb wouldn't want the extra heartbreak on Essek when Caleb eventually dies, then the rest of Essek’s friends die on top of that. Liam said that this campaign, romance in any shape or form was not a priority and I think also that had a part to do with it. I’m glad Caleb just didn’t be alone for the rest of his life and only teaching. I’m glad he reached out to Essek and did that stuff, and then taught Luc. It’s far from the sad wizard boy who was ready to leave the M9 at a moments notice to be alone. 

Sorry for the rambling and VERY LONG post. oh my god I’m so sorry but it just kept coming. haha I’m very sad to see the Mighty Nein go. This campaign was the reason I got into D&D and where I fell in love with it. I fell in love with these nerdy ass voice actors and their characters. BUT it makes me excited for campaign 3 and the future of Critical Role. 

SIDENOTE: WHAT THOUGHTS DO YOU GUYS HAVE ON THE PROJECT THEYRE GOING TO ANNOUNCE NEXT WEEK HUH? I’m glad they mentioned that they aren't ready for Campaign 3 just yet, but Marisha made it at least seem that its on the horizon. I’m sure they want to take the break they deserve and have time to transition from their M9 characters to their new ones. so yeah anyway 

Thank you, Mighty Nein. Long may you all reign. 

[kodachromantic]

god i have this whole fucking idea with rick and diane and the family that i really wanna get down sometime soon. i think next week since it's just supposed to be rendering our final i'll have time to do it but AHHHHH

i had this idea a few weeks ago after s5e8 came out and now that we know the origin story is canon it thus makes my idea a little more canon-inclusive too (idk how to describe that rn ykwim)

fuck it i'll just explain the premise even though it doesnt make sense when you add logic but shhhhhh

so the family's eating a meal or something at the dining table, just boring old whatever when all of a sudden a portal opens up and diane and kid beth come through (just as how they look in the flashback). everyone immediately is like "what the fuck" and rick pulls out a gun and aims it at diane like "dont come any closer bitch" cause he knows theyre fake/from another timeline, they have to be, he watched them explode

diane and kid!beth are terrified and diane's just trying to understand wtf is going on while also protecting her kid, the family is yelling at him to drop the gun and beth is fucking stunned/having incredibly mixed emotions looking at her mother and a younger version of herself

rick ends up taking them to the garage, not putting down the gun, and with forcing everyone to be on guard/watch for any suspicious movement he runs some tests and uh. yeah that's his diane and beth. just fucking there. alive. the fuck.

obviously hijinks ensue of how does everyone deal with this and what's going to happen all with the looming threat of why didn't that rick actually kill them and are they all being watched and when is a rick gonna come back and finish the job?

i have two "endings" for this, one happy and one bittersweet but no matter what it is a mindfuck. the reason i brought up the logic being bad once u think about it is a few things: green portals are interdimensional travel, not time travel. diane and beth are travelling dimensions but also time which makes it not work. my only "fix" for this is the bomb was the time component that pushed them through both at the same time. the other part is why didn't that rick actually kill them? is it bc deep down he couldn't bare to? or maybe he just wanted to torment c-137 throughout his life for rejecting the offer? the 2nd one makes more sense within canon i feel but the 1st one is a good fanon interpretation and i love both. again the logic isnt sound when in regards to the show but...eh whatever i guess

i'll either write it or draw it or both or just make more posts like this where it's more of an explanation rather than an actual piece LOL idk if anyone will see this or im just talking to the void but if u have any questions/ideas i'd love to hear it :))

[pup-pee]

U 2 R ENCOURAGING ME

TY AKFLHSJAKGHSFK HERES SOME RLLY BROKEN THOUGHTS ABOUT THEM

ahem

edit; i posted this then got instant regret thats so funny

SO HYPOTHETICALLY LETS SAY LETS JUST im using the lore of lex bing a "donator"((ig)) 2 kons dna. so when kon was born inn this au he was set out w/a bunch of instructions 2 basically obey/work,,,under? hes basically just a drone whos doesnt know he has any human rights ect ect,,,,,,,i make my aus way 2 sad im starting 2 realize bc

ok so yj keeps messing around w/lex & so kon & the team fight constantly. SO LIKE((omg im literally the kid that says "& then" & "so" omg)) LIKE THEY GET INVOLBED IN SOME TIMEY WHIMEY BULLSHIT & GET SENT 2 THE FUTURE omg,,,,,,,i wonder what time period they got sent 2- 31st century im not complicated mysterious or cool ((i literally got this idea bc of kyle getting sent 2 the future im not slick. i cant eeven remember Y kyle got sent in the 1st place i just remmeber he did & it was random?,,,,,,it definatly wasnt random i need 2 pay attention))

ANWYASY, SO BACK IN "PRESENT" TIME lex is like "damn my obedient body guard :/" & sets off 2 make another clone. bc 4 plot convenience im moving the labs 2 hawaii dont even,,,,dont come 4 me

SO sososoosoo so SO so roxy gets assigned 2 work within the labs, protection basically. alsmost like? serving lex as a tour guide? i cant explain rlly well i swear this makes sense. basicalyl, police officer roxy bing assigned 2 make sure lex is doing his thing,,,,,ig ANWYAYS roxy doesnt like whats happening & reporter tana is going 2 her bc she wants the scoop. EVENTUALLY they start 2 work 2gether & find out about all the cloning mess,,,,,,ethics about cloning get discussed LISTEN I JUST WANTED THEM 2 HAVE A SCOOBY DOO MYSTERY GANG ADVENTURE ((mayb others will b added idk,,,,,)) BUT I WANTED THEM 2 HAVE 1 OK THATS LITERALLY THE ONLY THOUGHT BHIIND THEM TEAMING UP

ANYWAS how many times have i said anwyays

back in the "future" time, kon + yj team is just, BAM hi welcome 2 the 31st century! anythinng im literally about 2 type is based off any bart lore ive read & the small bunch of losh comics ive read im still building my knowledge i swear ((also this totally isnt based off of any tmnt comics shhhhhhhh shHHHHHHH U CANT ACCUSE ME OF ANYTHING((its rlly not i just had silly ideas after reading tmnt fjdksfh))))

they get traveled in the middle of the city, theyre still fighting thats crazy, yj knows its crazy so they stop attacking back & start going rlly defensive & trying 2 convince kon tht they RLLY shouldnt b fighting rn, that they should team up & yk, figure out wth is going on

eventually kon stops bc uhm,,,,,,,,,,yeah no wth is going on? also if u havent realized i think about rlly rlly long stories y couldnt i just make a konbart au based off a movie or smth, fucking scream konbart au even. western au i miss u y dont i think of u often anymore?

ANWYASY AAAAAAAAAAAAA

ANYWAYS

SO they all kinda settle down & r trying 2 figure out what 2 do. they know theres a team but they dont know how 2 contact them

cough idk how 2 contact them i rlly wanna write them all intereacting but im just not skilled enough yet ESPECIALLY 2 JUGGLE THAT MANY CHARACTERS OMGGGGGGG

bc of that, they just sorta want 2 find others who can help them or smth,,,,,,idk HOW exactly bc this rlly is a wip like i thought about it then 4got then thoguht about mystery gang tana & roxy & now im thinking of this again so like excuse my vry jumpy thoughts

but they find out about time tech, dont ask how srsf jdkagfkdus or well, AUGHH if any1 wants 2 4 some reaosn help me pls do im STRUGGLING KASHFJKSHDLF

THEY FIND OUT ABOUT TIME TECH, kon goes w/the team bc his 1 goal is 2 get back 2 lex & the best/fastest option is a temperaty teamup

SO THEY GET 2 THIS,,,,science building((im as specific as the sciencce police look @ me!)) & while serching 4,,,idk time pods who,,,,whos letting me use words? whos even reading this whos cringing rn raise ur hands!! im nto raising my hand this is my brainrot rn

WHILE SERCHING THEY FIND BART & THEYRE JUST LIKE "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah no this doesnt seem right like @ all" so they free him & barts just, can i say like glitching? hes struggling w/getting a grip on reality & harmonizing w/the speedforce like hes NOT having a good time

time pod,,,,,,,,,wtf am i saying theres a treadmill thers goddamn exercise equipment right there

anyways science police r chasing kon + bart + the team now through this time & oh golly is it silly!!!!! ((insert kon + bart having conversations about their rights & what makes them human + the fact they didnt even have a childhood 2 lose but they still lost it anyways))

eventually, they get back 2 the "present" &,,,,,,,,lex,,,,,,,lex did u make another clone???? dude we told u not 2 do that ur going in time out

tana + roxy r the 1st 1s who find the bunch bc they kinda time travel infrnt or near them & just, the realization the 2 of them go through of just ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,, WE KNEW IT" & theyre the 1s 2 tell them about their hypothetical that lex is producing,,,,making? creating another clone

not match or any others irs just not a canon clone @ all im making the clone

im lex luthor now nope nopne nope nope

anyways

wham bam pow they defeat the cloney guy the american way by shouting politics @ him((exaggerated theres also fighting))

they arrest lex who lets b honest wont stay in prison long BUT HEYYYYYY @ LEAST KONS FREE!!!!! i rlly want a cheesy moment where lex is trying 2 liek command kon 2 do smth but kon just bing like "man my names kon what is this who is that who r u speaking about??" bc kon gets his naem in the "future"

i just

listen

i have thoughts & they r VRY DISORGANIZED

after kiss fight

make out sloppy style if u will

this isnt their 1st kiss no1 on the team is surprised

plssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssfdjaklhf

oh hey wasnt bart dying? oh yeah he is dying isnt he,,,,OH SHIT HES DYING yeah barts dying hes still dying

listen i dont WANT bart 2 die but god how in the hell is he going 2 get 2 another speedster? man, if only i knew losh lore this would b solved easily

still debating if bart dies bc MAN idk

i have 1 quote conversation((haha konversation guys im so oooo oooo ofunny)) that i want in this seris & its like

"im jealous, i was born inside a box((metaphorically)). u get 2 choose who u want 2 b, ur lucky 2 have that freedom" smth smth

then just "i was literally kept inside a vr prison but like, who says u cant choose?"

GGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD i love cheesy stuff u dont understand

EXCEPT WHEN THE ANSWER IS "true love" GET THAT OUT OF HERE

anyways, those r my thgouths, i rlly was gonna keep them 2 myself but kajhfkjafd

this is such a basic idea i would not b surprised if some1 hasnt made smth close 2 this alr

also i dooooo kindaaaaaaaaaa have au designs 4 them? @ least a bit 4 kon who i stuck in a suit srry honey srry srry

& then theres bart whos just running around in his suit w/out the mask ofc bc y would a superhero even need a mask???? weirdddddd

i DO want 2 draw them all & i mean THEM ALL bc i like altering their designs 2 every au just a weeee little bit

2 the ppl ive sent bart w/small braids in his hair this is not the same au srry 2 disapoint

i cant w/this au i literally get kon called "13" or variants of "#13" 4 the majority of this au im so srry

sighhhhhhhhhhh this is a mess ok im done akjsfhjkfdfs

have doodles 4 ur troubles ig no those talking bubbles r not in order @ all sshhhhhhhhhhhh

thnx 4 readig igdhakjsfhkjdal I SHOULD b WORKINGGGGGGGGGG THERE IOS STUDYING 2 B DONE

would any1,,,,,,,,would any1 like 2 hear about my stupid konbart au where barts stuck in the future, kon is under lexs thumb, & yj consists of tim & the girls who basically all bully him, tana & roxy r a duo who r investigating lex dont even ask

im

this au is so stupid its actually just broken

[qwertyfingers]

hi it's watch order anon again i sent the time travel ep ask before you answered the tng watch order one (after i saw your post about it taking a while) and i was actually thanking you for recommending spn eps to me (because i'm also the spn watch order anon) and talking about spn time travel episodes (which i am going to look up you don't have to rec any to me if you don't want to). thank you VERY much however for the tng time travel rec list i'm adding them to... the list

OH IM STUPIT KLSGJCHGFG

well, here we have: FITZ’S FUN-RANKED LIST OF SUPERNATURAL TIME TRAVEL EPS (TAKING A ROUNDABOUT DEFINITION OF TIME TRAVEL TO INCLUDE ALTERNATE UNIVERSES BECAUSE THEYRE FUN IN THE SAME WAY OKAY)

IMPORTNANT DISCLAIMER: S5E4 The End is theeeeee iconic Supernatural time travel/au ep but do NOT be led astray you HAVE to watch this one with context. do the full deancas lazarus rising to the end speedrun you will NOT regret it I PROMISE

S6E15 The French Mistake THEEEEEEEEE episode of all time amongst thee show of all time. they KILL eric kripke ONSCREEN

S3E11 Mystery Spot - LITERALLY a timeloop fanfic. EXTREMELY good. fave pre-Cas episode for me.

S5E8 Changing Channels - brings back mystery spots MOTW and makes him even more powerful. iconic behaviour, great episode.

S6E17 My Heart Will Go On is fun hijinks-y but admittedly has very little on-screen time travel. Balthazar is in it though and I like him

S6E18 Frontierland - Dean and Sam send themselves back in time AND it’s a cowboy episode. VERY star trek

S13E16 Scoobynatural - IT COUNTS I THINK. Semi-related, S8E8 Hunteri Heroici involves a guy who make cartoons come to life with his mind. It’s a very fun and very pretty episode and Cas and Dean r gay, well worth watching <3

S4E17 It’s A Terrible Life - Zachariah traps Sam and Dean in alternate reality where Dean is a (heavily implied out queer) businessman of some sort and wears fruity suits. Sam is there I guess. One of its finest Gay Homophobia episodes and genuinely very fun to watch.

S11E14 The Vessel - Dean wears a fruity little sailor outfit and Casifer (Lucifer who is possessing Castiel and the Winchesters don’t know yet - it’s a whole story arc) fists Sam’s soul just for funsies. The ONLY reason Casifer couldn’t get on that boat is because if Cas saw Dean’s fruity sailor outfit for more than a minute he would have lost his MIND and Lucifer woulda had to leave his vessel sharpish.

S8E11 LARP and the Real Girl - I think the title speaks for itself really, I think this counts! Charlie Bradbury (Felicia Day’s character) is in it and she’s cool and gay and Dean wears chainmail <3

S7E12 Time After Time I can’t remember that much about this ep but Dean does wear a very good 40s suit including a shoulder holster <3

I really want to tell you to watch the Belphegor episodes (S15E1-S15E3) but none of it would actually make sense I’m just obsessed with them bringing a messy gay bitch demon into Jack’s body literally top 10 Supernatural Gay Homophobia Moments in my onion.

S8E12 As Time Goes By - Sam and Dean’s grandfather jumps forward in time to find them, and introduces them to the history of the Men Of Letters, whose house they will steal in the next episode

S4E3 In The Beginning - This and the next episode are only ranked so low because I don’t care about Mary and John drama. HOWEVER. Zachariah sends Dean back in time to meet his mum before she married John and Zachariah very possibly fucked her. There are a LOT of memes about this now.

S5E13 The Song Remains The Same - Anna tries to stop Sam from being born. This entire concept is VERY funny to me. As is Sam and Dean showing up on the doorstep of their mum and dad, who do not have children yet, telling them their real names and saying ‘it’s a family name’ when John points out that Mary has relatives with the same name. Comedic genius I don’t care about the rest of the episode but from what I remember it’s pretty good.

S14E13 Lebanon - this episode is bad because it tries to redemption arc John BUT. it gave us  [spoilers] 1) lesbian steve jobs ted talk sam 2) Dean trying to placate alt-Cas who never got to know him by doing the ‘Cas....’ and gentle touch thing and alt-Cas just going ham and obliterating his ass 3) Dean choosing to go back to their world (with Cas <3) over staying in this universe with his Dad because he’s not worth it <3

There are several flashback eps to Dean and Sam’s childhoods, but as you can imagine these are all pretty sad and not the kind of thing you wanna watch For Funsies. The wiki has a list of those here.

The longest alt-universe arc is the Apocalypse World - a world where the Angels and Demons successfully orchestrated their plan to cause the apocalypse and are steadily wiping out the last of the human population. This isn’t overall a “fun” arc, but is v interesting and pique your attention if you like time travel and AU content. The wiki lists all the episodes here.

[indigopurple]

Saw an ask game response abt disliking certain tropes and now i feel the strong urge to overshare my own opinions on that. Here's a list of my most UTTERLY HATED tropes/AUs/etc out there from worst to...less worst. This was rlly difficult cuz I cant think of them til I accidentally see them on AO3 and get all pissy abt it

The A/B/O wolf thingy. Its so dumb to me I'm sorry i just can't follow it and it always gets romantic and sappy somehow. Also I dont understand how wolves work. The more I think abt it the more annoyed I get.

Soulmates AUs. Ugh. Again, sooo sappy and gets SO ooc. The only exception is I once saw (didnt read tho lol) this fic where one of the characters like, kinda rebelled against the soulmate meeting thing, and he said that his eyes change color all the time with different friends. Aka its PLATONIC! SCOORRRRREEEEE! I also recently learned that soulmates AUs are often used to explain ppls pedophilic/incest ships. Disgusting.

OC/self insert fics. I dont have any issue with ppl writing these, in fact its prolly good practice for the beginner writers that make them. Assuming they're all like, 12 y/o kids. Cuz that's the grammar and vocab level in all of them. Also, theyre never very engaging or intriguing, and i never know why I should care abt the main character. I just have absolutely no interest in these fics, sorry.

Sickfics involving like....gross sickness. I get that that's more realistic or whatever but is that rlly what you're going for? This is this just whump and fluff 99% of the time. I dont need a description of [whumped character] throwing up all over the floor. Just like, fucking make them have a dizzy spell or smth; kinda gets the same result. Like are you trying to gross us out? Really?? I make one exception to this rule: throwing up/coughing up blood. That is a whole nother story tho.

Deaging/aging up fics. I dont have a huge problem with these, but I've never been interested. I've heard that this one is also used to make ppls incest/pedophilic ships seem ok, which isnt very cool. I've seen this be used for rlly weird fluff abt like, [said deaged/aged up] having to mother or be mothered by their close friends which I guess is just some weird form of fluff, but like...rlly strange. It's like the filler episode no one liked of fanfics. If it's used as a way to force a characters traumatic past be brought up then ig it's ok since theres some interesting plot, just as long as the character isnt aged down to like..an infant.

Time travel fics. Often used to fix something that happened in canon that the writer is salty about. Usually undoing a character death, or going back to see friends as their younger selves, things like that yknow. Usually hurt/comfort which is cool. I dont have a big problem with these fics, I just find them kinda hard to follow with such a weird perspective (usually the character that travelled back in time). I see a shit ton of these in the one piece fandom, mainly consisting of "luffy goes back in time to save his brothers" or "luffy, after dying before he can reach his goal, gets a second chance and goes to reform his pirate crew". Its always those. Wouldn't be surprised if it was the same stuff for other fandoms but adding "[main character] goes back in time to remeet [character's crush/soulmate/etc] so they can get married" or some sappy shit. Sorry this one is way too long lol.

Slavery AUs. These...ugh ok. These are actually pretty interesting to me, absolutely heart-wrenching and also very sweet in the end. The hurt/comfort angst in these is fucking unreal. My issue with these is they sometimes get super rapey. Starts with idk some kid gets kidnapped + sold into slavery of some sort, then [a lot of the fic being then suffer and be traumatized], and then they are freed. Bonus points for written in epilogue with a healing process and like..found family yknow. It gets fucked up in the suffering part. Way too many of these fics get into like, rape. Which makes sense tbh (god I hate that tho), it just gets too...detailed. like uh hey writer, is this like, a turn on or what? I've stopped in the middle of a few fics, or skip a chapter, cuz I was like dude I cant deal w this. Also dear authors, fucking tag your writing, stop surprising me with shit like this. I should know what I'm getting into before reading it.

Cant think of anything else atm. Might add more later if smth on AO3 catches me off gaurd lol.

Someone out there is gonna hate me for making this post

[lemondoddle]

Lane tell me about ur ocs....

LOR!!!! ❤💖💗💕 literally yes its Ramble Time

so i have a sort of universe for my ocs in like a series setup- its called Anomalies and the basic jist is that modern society rules and etiquette in this universe is just a cover for little rituals to keep the supernatural at bay and keep the general public calm, BUT an organization is going around helping people with supernatural shenanigens and educating them like Hey you dont have to be afraid anymore

OK FIRST- we have Aris. at first aris was just a character i drew based off of the song Aristotle’s Denial (Aris for short) but then i realized i liked him too much and gave him a backstory. He works for the organization as a field agent and helping people with their Paranormal Problems, but also to search for his lost lover and partner,Lola, that was separated from him on a failed mission a few years ago. he’s tired all the time and perpetually half-lidded but he’s kind and gentle and a father figure/ good dad to Jasmine. he smokes and is kind of a disaster bi. he’s also trans and has a sigil of Lola’s name burned onto his arm that appeared during The Incident and he keeps it covered

NEXT is Jasmine. she ran away from her home and stumbled into danger on her travels but was luckily saved by aris who was like “kid whats your deal” and took her in as a sort of apprentice But theyre really more of a father/daughter duo but they wont admit it. Jasmine is young and kinda naive but she also knew that something is up with society and paranatural stuff, part of the reason she left home

NOW Edith! she’s aris’ coworker and friend. Edith is super sweet and supportive but assertive in that  “i want you to be my mom but you also scare me” sense. BIG osono from kikis delivery service vibes. just always happy to help people 

SANDRA!! at first sandra was actually a character i made for an improv camp but realized she kinda fits in really well with this universe so i chucked her in there as well! she’s a brainwashed target employee rescued from her position by aris and jasmine and shes working on trying to remember her life or family or literally any non-target related. she’s staying with edith who’s helping her and cue romantic tension because edith really likes her but she thinks sandra has enough on her plate and her sentience is still dubious at best. sandra likes edith back but is still working on expressing emotions properly again, what a soap opera

FINALLY for this universe (for now) Lola!!- i still dont have much figured out with her since the tiny very not linear story in my head still keeps her as a mystery to the nonexistent audience but im getting there. she was aris’ field agent partner (edith stayed back and did research/ consulations) and they fell in love but oops! during a house call Lola disappeared and aris has been looking for her ever since. she was a calming presence, defs more level-headed than aris but could always make him laugh somehow

OKAY i think thats enough for now, i still have other ocs that i dont think about as much but this post is already so long. ill probs post some art of them tomorrow and maybe eventually even the mock TMA statement i wrote thru aris’ perspective on The Incident. (fun fact i made aris like last summer and listened to tma this past february and oh my god aris and jon are twins. very tired disaster bi’s that smoke and have supernatural trauma relating to their jobs, how bout that??)

[eggoreviews]

12 ‘Unpopular’ Viddy Game Opinions

I’ve seen this topic floating around a lot, but didn’t think I had enough ‘unpopular but maybe not’ opinions about games to make a post. Turns out I do! So if you see this and I say something blasphemous, remember it’s just my opinion and my personal experiences with the games I list. Hope you enjoy or hey, maybe even agree with some of this!

Note: Can’t stress enough. This is just me. Also, spoilers under the cut!

12. The opening of Kingdom Hearts II isn’t as terrible as everyone says

Okay, so it’s not brilliant, but at the same time, I don’t think it’s the worst. For those not in the know, KH2′s opening is a basically a massive slog where you play as a character you don’t know or care about with seemingly no real link to the events of the previous game. The general consensus is that there’s some interesting stuff in here, but it’s buried among endless dialogue that really doesn’t mean much. And they’re right, but I really think there’s some great stuff here that people tend to gloss over. The music and the motif of Twilight Town is atmospheric, there’s some genuinely intriguing plot elements that are woven into Roxas’ story and believe it or not, the stuff that happens here is intrinsic to the rest of the game. So yeah, it drags on a little, but I don’t think KH2 would be miles better without this opening.

11. I loved Breath of the Wild’s final boss

One of the problems I see talked about with Breath of the Wild is that the boss fights are fairly mediocre, especially the very last one, Dark Beast Ganon. And I couldn’t disagree more. I think every boss in the game is wonderfully crafted, intense, challenging and great for testing you on what you’ve learned throughout the game by encouraging you to make creative use of your slate powers and the flurry rush technique. And while Mr. Pig Man at the end here is sort of easy and short, it serves as a brilliantly epic finale to damn near perfect game. While the difficulty is mostly gone after the mammoth fight with Calamity Ganon, it’s still just as intense as you frantically fire off arrows into the massive beast in front of you. Plus, the design of this thing is one of the best looking monsters in the game, so I really don’t understand the dislike for this ending.

10. I really like Crash of the Titans

Okay, so maybe childhood nostalgia has something to do with this pick, but every Crash fan I’m aware of seems to hate this game. But I don’t really know where the hate comes from! I played the PS2 version of this and I thought it was a genuinely fun 3D platformer with a variety of locations, good visuals, well-designed boss battles and even a vague story you can sort of follow! The game’s main gameplay feature is also brilliantly integrated, as using Aku Aku to possess various monsters throughout the game keeps everything interesting. One thing I will say though, that tiger dude you have to fight about halfway through is the most annoying thing I’ve ever had to endure in a game.

9. Life Is Strange: Before the Storm is BAD

I loved Life Is Strange when it first dropped, so I was beyond excited when they announced a prequel from Chloe’s perspective. But I really think they dropped the ball and they dropped it hard. But everyone else seems to adore this game! For me, this wasn’t a touch on the original. For a start, they dropped out one of the main mechanics of the first game, the time travel, which they then replaced with a much less interesting ‘Backtalk’ feature, which was then only used about twice throughout the game. Instead of interesting, developed characters reacting to genuinely dangerous or heartfelt situations, it felt to me like a bunch of one-dimensional teenagers who are edgy for the sake of being edgy. Chloe spends the majority of the game being a dick to her mother and bunking off class to spend time with Rachel, who she has literally known for like a day and their sudden relationship drops out of nowhere. Not that I didn’t enjoy the emotional moments of their relationship, it just didn’t feel like it stemmed from anywhere, unlike Max and Chloe from the first game. And the game’s attempts at villains were also rubbish compared to the first, with Damien (random scary knife guy who doesn’t really tie into the plot that much) and Eliot (who doesn’t appear for the whole game and suddenly goes full incel on Chloe when she breaks into Rachel’s house). Yeah I think you can tell I had some problems with this one.

8. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider was also a hot mess

I LOVE the Dishonored series. The first game and its DLCs are amazing, the second game was arguably even better. And then this happened. In this one, you play as Billie Lurk, a character I love, and Daud comes back, a character I also love. But both of them are incredibly badly written and it doesn’t feel like there’s any development to them or even much reason for them to do what they’re doing. This entry took the mystery surrounding the Outsider and basically did a big poo on it, giving us the revelation that he was apparently HUMAN this whole time. I think that was the nail in the coffin that made me sort of think this was a bit rubbish. While the combat and side missions were as brilliant as ever, the level designs felt less creative than other entries in the series and lacked variety or colour, all the side characters were entirely forgettable and to wrap it all up, they killed Daud offscreen. Out of nowhere, they just killed him, mentioned it offhand in a cutscene and that was that. If you like this game, fair enough, but it kind of baffles me that more people don’t see this in the game.

7. Mario Galaxy 2 is good. It’s just sort of good

Some people cite this as being one of the best 3D platformers of all time, and that’s fair enough, but I just kind of see this one as ‘good’. Sure, it has a good, satisfying control scheme for the most part, the level design is creative and the bosses and puzzles are pretty standard for a Mario title, but still enjoyable. However, sometimes, the floaty physics and weird knockback effect from jumping into walls led to quite a lot of unfair deaths, especially if I’d been punished for messing up already by losing a life, only to then immediately be punished again by falling into the void. Plus, I found Yoshi near impossible to control at some points with the motion controls. So yeah, this one is genuinely enjoyable, but I don’t think I’d personally put it with the best of all time.

6. I LOVE Dragon Quest IX TO DEATH

This is a game in a legendary franchise that consistently almost always see ranked at the very bottom of the pile in the series. But I really don’t understand how or why. Okay so your protagonist and party are basically silent and don’t have a lot of character, but I don’t see this as a reason to totally write off the game! The side characters, villains and story are all amazing and well-developed, the world is huge, colourful and interesting, the monsters are brilliantly creative and Dragon Quest’s signature lame sense of humour is gratefully carried through the whole game. The music is always brilliant and atmospheric and the bosses are just as memorable as each character you meet. What was everyone’s problem?? This is genuinely one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played and if you haven’t had a chance to pick it up, it is so, so worth it.

5. Sonic Adventure is a broken mess

So before I kick this one off, I’m not someone who hates Sonic and I’m not here to slate the whole franchise, but considering this game is often considered to be one of the best in the series, I thought it was definitely worth addressing. When I first played this, I literally couldn’t believe this was made in 1998, AFTER Mario 64 and yet it’s so broken! The physics and control scheme are totally wonky and hard to control, the unending amount of glitches make a fair amount of the stages almost unplayable, the voice acting and facial animation is cringey and oddly broken and yet, this was all on the Dreamcast. The most powerful console of the time. And I don’t think I even need to mention how boring some of the later stages get, with Big the Cat’s fishing section being the main offender. I can’t vouch for Adventure 2 as I haven’t had a chance to play yet, but I really hope it isn’t like this.

4. Dragon Age Origins is the best Dragon Age

Dragon Age has always been a popular RPG series, but I think it properly shot to fame once Inquisition dropped in 2014. And don’t get me wrong, I liked Inquisition! The world was colourful and expansive and the characters were fairly memorable, but I still think the best experience you can get is in the series’ first entry, Origins. While it’s pretty easy to see that it’s slightly dated considering it’s ten years old now, the best characters and story in the series I think is here. Each companion you recruit is varied and developed and the story wraps up brilliantly in the end with each companion and army you meet playing a different role in the final battle. Plus, I kind of can’t forgive Inquisition for making Leliana lose her sense of humour and making her kinda boring.

3. Oblivion is better than Skyrim

Okay so I’m not sure exactly how unpopular this is, but I just thought Oblivion was miles better than Skyrim ended up being. Just to clear it up, I still love Skyrim and I thought it built on the series’ combat system and variety of enemies really well and still provided an enjoyable experience. But Oblivion feels like more of an adventure you feel at home in. The story is dense and full of twists and turns. The soundtrack has some of the most atmospheric music I’ve ever heard, the world is full of bright colours, each city is vastly different and has its own lore and I found some of this to be absent from Skyrim. I’d go into more detail, but I think the simple fact is that Oblivion had so much more I liked than Skyrim.

2. I don’t think The Witcher III is all that amazing (in some regards)

This by no means says that I don’t like the game, because I do, but I think it has more flaws than people let on. Now, don’t get me wrong, a lot of the stuff people praise about this game is true, the quests are in-depth and masterfully crafted, the characters, especially Geralt, are extremely memorable. In fact, Geralt is one of my favourite game protagonists. But most of the problems I had were in terms of the gameplay. The combat, while fast-paced and satisfying, can sometimes feel a little finicky, so a lot of precision is needed. However, I felt that the world itself didn’t particularly interest me and the music is often ambient but outside of combat, isn’t anything special. Mostly though, the leveling system I found to be a bit wonky. I did absolutely everything I could in the first area of the game; all the side quests, treasure hunts, killed a whole bunch of monsters etc. And then I arrive in the second area and find I’m too underleveled to do literally anything. The majority of the quests have too high a level cap, a lot of the monsters kill me very quickly. And because the bulk of EXP farming is in the quests, I’m sort of stuck in an endless loop of constantly not being strong enough to do anything. On top of that, all my equipment keeps breaking and I’m finding that repair kits are extremely few and far between and that makes me even WEAKER. It’s something I’m gonna need to persevere with I think, but hey, this is just my experience with it.

1. Ocarina of Time, as amazing as it is, may have overstayed its welcome as best game of all time

I reckon this might be the most controversial, so it’s number 1. Let me preface this by saying I really like Ocarina and I agree that it was innovative for the RPG genre at the time. There’s a hell of a lot in this game that we have to thank for the games we have today. But considering how far the gaming industry has come since then and the sheer amount of high quality games we’ve been getting year after year, is still fair to call this the best game ever? When more recent games have taken what Ocarina started and built upon it? Games like Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption II, God of War all gave us expansive, beautiful worlds and a story you can really get stuck into. And all the time, more and more games of this caliber are coming out. So yes, of course Ocarina of Time deserves a place in the hall of fame, it was revolutionary and still holds up really well today! I just can’t help but think there have been plenty of games since then, as flawed as some of them may be, that have improved upon the formula tenfold since Ocarina’s release.

Thanks for reading if you got this far! Just to reiterate, these are all just my opinions and my experiences with the games I mentioned, so pls don’t attack me. Got any viddy game opinions you think are sort of not popular? Drop them down below if you feel like it!

[comicteaparty]

May 13th-May 19th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from May 13th, 2019 to May 19th, 2019.  The chat focused on Damsels Don’t Wear Glasses by J Alice Bown.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Damsels Don’t Wear Glasses by J Alice Bown~! (http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until May 19th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. In so far, what aspect of the world-building catches your interest the most? Why is that so? Also, what theories do you have in regards to differences between places like Persephone and Hestia?

Delphina

For serious scenes, I think I gotta go with the big swordy magic scene where she saves Jake from being crushed by the statue (http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/?comic_id=202) because the lighting effects are gorgeous and seeing Lave doing big magic stuff with her sword was really really cool. For silly scenes, the one that always sticks with me is Lave trying to be a host and failing miserably. (http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/?comic_id=123)

keii4ii

2) I really liked this page. http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/index.php?comic=20180423 How she just asks a random person on the street for a magic shortcut and gets an answer right away. While it's always been clear that magic is an ordinary thing, this kind of little details really shows exactly how ordinary.

Capitania do Azar

I really like the prologue, particularly the part where they climb the lamppost. There's just so much character into the entire scene, and the exchanges are really cool. It's a very strong beginning for a story too, imo!!

2) http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/index.php?comic=20130423 I really think this part has a lot to show about world building like, here's this weird magical event going on, but everyone is just "I was just trying to show you something cool urg" and "well this ain't it"

duskglass

for the worldbuilding, i especially love the variety of creatures/nonhumans we've seen so far, and how well integrated they are with the setting! it's got a classic urban fantasy vibe while also being very fresh and unique

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. What do you think Lave’s backstory is? Do you think she got all her scars from her job, or might some of them predate her job somehow? How do you think Jake will change the way Lave handles and deals with her life?

ClauseArt

heeey I just saw this! This is my comic! Thanks for taking the time to read it! c8

RebelVampire

1) i definitely gotta go with the scene where jake is in dream world like place with aishe. I really love how this scene just suddenly adds 1000 layers of mystery. Plus, i really just love the change in color scheme. It really gives it this other worldly feel that gives me goosebumps. Plus, I also just like Aishe's design. 2) I've really been enjoying the differences in magic. Like, for example, how most zombies actually suck cause ya know...theyre dead. I feel this adds such a great twist what we expect, cause every change I feel fits a more logical setup for what the magic does. Again, like how the zombie thing makes 1000% sense cause dead bodies are not the sturdiest. I am curious about why Lave had such a reaction to Hestia magic schools, but I don't have any theories outside of magic must be viewed very differently in places.

3) Kestrel because he's such a precious failure at life. Like...he just cannot catch a break and for some reason that makes him super endearing to me. Plus now hes got the whole aishe connection thing going on so that makes him double interesting. But mostly I want to boop him for all his failures. 4) I would think some of her scares would have to predate her job. Cause she's...she's got a lot of them. And considering she mentioned having been in jail, I'm kind of struck with the idea that maybe she ran with a gang or something. She super gives me the impression of someone who mostly raised herself and didnt have a huge loving family involved in teaching her how to deal with life. I think Jake will be a good influence on her though and teach her to be more careful. Cause she seems very fun loving and reckless, and while that can work when youre solo, its not great when you have other ppl. Like i think the Kestrel thing was a good example cause I felt Lave perhaps was too loose cannon with it, which semi resulted in Kestrel almost kicking the bucket. And Jake is like 1000 times more fragile, and I think it'll force Lave to see that she cant protect anybody if she goes around without a plan.

ClauseArt

@Capitania do Azar that scene with Kest and lave interacting around the lamp-post was actually the moment I decided Kest worked well as a main character. He was honestly going to die in the original draft. @keii4ii thanks! I super love just....the mundane feeling of everyday magic. @Delphina Honestly Lave just being a f--k up is probably my fav part of writing her character, especially for comedic effect XD Next to drawing glowy magic scenes of course.(edited)

@RebelVampire Oh wow this is a lot. Thank you! ;-; dammit I really can't respond to these kind of questions cus spoilers. But I'm glad you noticed a lot of my characters having...well a habit of messing up (and Lave did not handle that first chap well cough) XD Also Aishe is my fav character to draw, because Kest is my fav character to draw only its + because glowy effects. I do really like when more real world logic is put in fantasy, like corpses making for bad heavy hitters unless they're in a swarm. So I'm super glad you liked that!

Capitania do Azar

4. If Lave's style has always been what we've seen so far, then all those scars don't surprise me at all! They'd be the natural consequence of past encounters, work related or otherwise. It just kinda feels that everything ends with someone getting punched around her

3. I've really liked pretty much everyone, but I think Lave's my favorite cuz she's sturdy but messy and I feel there's a lot to be learned about her aha

And also she prolly also has a lot to learn

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. Why do you think Jake is in Persephone with no guardian? What theories do you have on Jake’s hatred of non-humans? Will Jake be able to overcome his prejudice?

Capitania do Azar

6. Jake feels a lot like is somebody important's family but important could mean a lot of things. And has for his discomfort, I think it mostly stems from not knowing/being used to all this magic, which gives me the idea that some of these cities are less magical than others

5. Not an illustration, but I really love how in the last pages, as the sun rises, the colors become brighter and the sky becomes pink!!

It really helps bringing home the feeling that the night is over and the quietness of early morning, which is kinda fitting since they also stopped fighting

Delphina

I think I gotta go with Lave as my favorite character too because competent + ridiculous + magical +swordy is my entire jam so she's sorta the best of all worlds. Gena holds a special place in my heart too because she's clearly trying to keep a lot of things together.

Illustration-wise, I love how things like Jake's anxiety (http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/?comic_id=198) or Chirovision (http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/?comic_id=237) or Aisheland (http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/?comic_id=225) traveling through magic spaces (http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/index.php?comic=20170501) make the palette and rendering different depending on the mood. Really good use of a more abstract style to convey tone and worldbuilding.

(Now I want there to be a DDWG theme park where there's weird places like Aisheland)

varethane

Lave is my fave!!!! I love her goofy attitude paired with how much butt she kicks when it's necessary. I love seeing people underestimate her and then get surprised, haha.(edited)

My favourite illustration is.... hard to pick, but probably this page: http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/?comic_id=206

Capitania do Azar

oh yeah, I really love the color work for those scenes, it carries out the emotions very well

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. For what purpose do you think someone sold Kestrel the cursed orb? How does this tie into the axe theft mystery Lave is asked to solve? What overall is going on regarding these illegal items, and how will it tie into the story?

Capitania do Azar

7. Anything that comes out of Kestrel's mouth is gold, but when he and Lave bicker it's even better!!!

Please just let them bicker more for my amusement

8. It really feels like someone's around trying to spread SOME mayhem and if one object was possessed then maybe it's not the only one... could be a tricky situation

Delphina

Will second that Lave and Kest definitely need to bicker more

RebelVampire

5) im kind of cheating by saying i really like the extra page about the leylines http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/index.php?comic=20160620 its really simplistic yet i think the illustrations work super well to help convey all the world-building information. its just a nice combo of huge info drop with some pleasant visual accompaniment 6) I assume Jake is probably an orphan from some important family? Or that Jake's family is super high up in rank somehow and just went "nah man we dont want this kid no more." while i def think some of jake's hate comes from ignorance, i also get the impression that jake had a bad experience with non-humans. something about jake's reactions just really strike me as ptsd. overall yeah, i think jake is gonna have to overcome it. plus, exposure breeds familiarity. its hard to be in the lion's den and continue to hate the lions.

7) jake and basically any non-human. I really just enjoy seeing jake's various reactions of "eww no" and then having to be confronted with the fact that not all non-humans are bad. It just makes me more and more curious about jake's past. plus, all these interactions really serve as a great tracking devices for how jake evolves in opinion. 8) With Kestrel, I kind of think someone is trying to draw Aishe out. I mean Aishe does have pretty neat butterflies and powers, so I can't blame them. Though I assume its a revenge thing cause I get the impression ppl arent all that happy with Aishe. But thus why other illegal items are being involved because you need powerful stuff to get to the powerful people.

Desnik

That leyline page is gorgeous and informative, I love the combo of worldbuilding and infographics

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. Who exactly is Aishe and what are their goals? What does this have to do with the undead from the first chapter? Why did Aishe help Jake? What will Lave do when she learns about Aishe?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. What do you think the story with Chiro is? How did he wind up as Lave’s roommate? Will Chiro and Jake learn to get along? Also, do you think there might be anything special about Chiro that might affect the story?

AshAngelV

6. I think he's come from an entirely different world that doesn't have non humans and magic.

AshAngelV

11. The world building and color scheme are definitely strong points. It feels fully fleshed out and magical, but also very grounded like it's this amazing magical place that's also totally normal. Also, the characters. Having a bunch of flawed characters with baggage is always more interesting than having perfect characters with no problems and even the bit characters feel dynamic. Like they have their own story and interests rather than being part of the scenery exsisting only for the MCs to interact with.

RebelVampire

9) The thing I appreciate the most details wise is just the physical flaws. Especially Lave's scars. Adding details like that can be really tedious, yet it really helps deliver so much character that I always enjoy when the time is taken to include things like that. 10) I feel like Aishe is probably some necromancer from the past who is trying to rectify a mistake that was made. I think Aishe helped for the reason they said: Jake did a kindness and gotta pay that shit forward. I feel like Lave is 100% not going to trust aishe and basically just encourage everyone to do the same. Maybe suggest Kestral seek professional help. But yeah, I don't see a green butterfly person flying with Lave XD 11) I think this comic's strengths lie in two areas. First, the implementation of magic. There are clear rules, there's enough deviations from the standard to be interesting, and the fact its presented as a normal culture thing is well-integrated. second, the color palettes are really amazing and suit the tone and atmosphere of each scene really well. 12) I feel like Chiro might be a bit special since that one person did wonder what species Chiro was or something like that. And that because of this specialness Chiro was outcasted. Hence why he wound up with Lave cause ya know, outcasts gotta stick together. I think Chiro and Jake will bond for sure down the road. Cause i mean Chiro did just help save Jake's butt, and thats gotta earn him some Jake points right?

AshAngelV

12. I think Chiro might be a vamp that just stays in bat form or maybe only has bat form.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. What do you think Kestrel’s role will be in regards to the larger story? Can Kestral and Aishe be detached from one another, or is the attachment permanent?

AshAngelV

14. I think he'll be the guy that's in a constant state of terror and peril. And I think the detaching will be up to Aishe.

ClauseArt

man its super hard not to chime in on these ahhh D8

Delphina

Rebel makes such good questions XDD

varethane

I am looking forward to several things! - what is Jake's deal and how is he linked to aishe -Lave's bite mark scar!!!! what is it!!!!!! -what will Kest do next -more Lave plz(edited)

RebelVampire

@Delphina thank you for saying so~!

13) im looking forward to more aishe doing aishe stuff just cause i dig that aesthetic a whole lot. im also looking forward to learning more about jake so more concrete theories can be made about wtf jake's deal is. and also why nobody else could take jake besides lave cause i mean seriously...theres gotta be more sane choices XD 14) Kest is gonna become a real mage and do magic stuff. also ya know, hide out with lave cause now the ppl he owes money too are probably gonna be out for blood. as for detaching...maybe not so much. i more feel like once Aishe is done with their tasks, their essence will just kind of disappear and merge with kest.

AshAngelV

Hang in there Clause.

ClauseArt

@AshAngelV I will try D8

I can at least promise a lot of these theories are gonna be answered sooner or later

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Damsels Don’t Wear Glasses this week! Please also give a special thank you to J Alice Bown for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Damsels Don’t Wear Glasses, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://damsels-dont-wear-glasses.com/

J Alice’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JAliceBown

J Alice’s Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/A732E2D

J Alice’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlicesBrainPad/

[la-knight]

BOOKS I (RE)READ IN 2018: FURTHERMORE BY TAHEREH MAFI

"Alice Alexis Queensmeadow, 12, rates three things most important: Mother, who wouldn’t miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. Father disappeared from Ferenwood with only a ruler, almost three years ago. But she will have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive, and left can be both right and very, very wrong. Her only companion is Oliver whose own magic is based in lies and deceit. Alice must first find herself—and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss." "Red was ruby, green was fluorescent, yellow was simply incandescent. Color was life. Color was everything. Color, you see, was the universal sign of magic." "Love, it turned out, could both hurt and heal." "Narrow-mindedness will only get you as far as Nowhere, and once you're there, you're lost forever.” "Alice was an odd girl, even for Ferenwood, where the sun occasionally rained and the colors were brighter than usual and magic was as common as a frowning parent." "Making magic is far more interesting than making sense." So I actually read this book a few months ago and then recently reread it via audio so I could remember all the details for this review. I was first introduced to Tahereh Mafi’s work through her book Shatter Me, her debut novel. Ironically, it wasn’t through any of the ways I normally hear about books - Booktube, Goodreads, my best friend, Booklr - but from my husband’s aunt. She runs - or used to run, not sure if she’s still doing it - a book review blog. And she posted a review of Shatter Me and I was like, “What a weird, interesting writing style, lemme check this out.” At this point the entire Shatter Me Trilogy plus novellas had been published and I devoured all of them (still need to review those, too). So when I heard Tahereh Mafi was writing a middle grade book, I got super excited! Especially because this was during a time when I was too stressed out to read any YA, since most of the YA I like involves having to save the world and all the stress that entails. I need to lay out some trigger warnings real quick: the main character, Alice? Her mom is incredibly abusive, both emotionally and physically. It’s treated as not such a big deal in the book, which is honestly the story’s only real flaw, but it’s bad. It took me seven tries and resorting to an audiobook (and even with a fantastic narrator, that short audiobook took me almost a month to get through) because the abuse was so bad. So:

TRIGGER WARNING: THIS BOOK CONTAINS EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL ABUSE OF A CHILD BY THEIR PARENT

Let’s get started, yo! First of all, the setting. OMG. See, I love tthis thing called Victorian fairy tales, which is something you can find in books like Mary Poppins - these super fantastical bits of whimsy that just warm your heart and make you grin because they’re so creative and fun. In the Mary Poppins books, you can jump into chalk drawings and go to a circus amidst the stars and make friends with a woman who sells living candy-cane horses. In Catherynne Valente’s Fairyland series, there are shadow balls and talking phonographs. And in Furthermore, there’s light raining down from the sky in literal drops, sticks of magic you use like money, and forests full of invisible berries. The way the world is put together and described, so full of color and imagination, is awesome and beautiful and I could picture it perfectly. It reminded me in all the best ways of books like The Phantom Tollbooth (one of my favorites). But I wouldn’t want to live there, because Ferenwood is full of colorism and ick. Alice, the female lead, is an albino in a world where color is important and the darker you are, the more magical you’re considered to be. So Alice gets treated like garbage. 

Also I think Alice may be autistic, but I don’t know if she’s deliberately coded autistic or if Tahereh Mafi did it by accident while trying to make Alice eccentric, but she comes across as autistic. I’ve actually begun to pay more attention to that sort of the thing in recent years, being autistic myself, and I see it a lot - authors giving their characters autistic characteristics, often without meaning to. I just touch on it here because Alice is already treated badly for being albino, but she’s also considered a freak because of the way she behaves - like an autistic preteen. And I wonder if Tahereh Mafi did that on purpose as a sort of commentary or not, because while Alice is treated badly by the people of Ferenwood for her behavior, the Narrator (who is an actual character in the story; love when that happens) always sides with Alice in this regard. The storyline is sweet and I love it. Alice tries to compete in the magical testing all the preteens do on their twelfth birthday, and so she dances. And her dancing is magical but it’s not Magical, you know? So she fails the test. Well, turns out a boy who passed the test the year before, Oliver (the brat), needs Alice’s help fulfilling a quest - rescuing Alice’s missing dad. So they go on a quest together, although Alice hates Oliver (and rightly so, he’s rude). They go to a dozen different and cool places, all of which are dangerous and all of which are different. I wish we could’ve spent more time in those places but I understand why we didn’t. The only annoying thing is there’s an origami fox on the cover but it only pops up in one of the worlds for like two pages and then it’s gone and I thought we could spend more time both in that world and with that creature since it ended up on the cover. But alas, not. I understand why - middle grade is often cursed to be short, especially if it’s the author’s first MG novel ever. Once you get big and bad like Rick Riordan you can start tossing out gihugic tomes like Son of Neptune or Blood of Olympus on the regular. Oliver’s reason for needing Alice was one I didn’t see coming, nor was her magical talent - a talent they hint at throughout the book but never explain until near the end, at the perfect moment. I thought it was an interesting commentary on how young girls perceive themselves, that Alice hates this marvelous, amazing talent she has of bringing color into the world from nothing...because she can’t use it to change how she looks. Society has trained her already, by the age of twelve, to discount something incredible about herself because she can’t use it to make herself into what society wants her to be. That’s pretty impressive for a book this short. I loved some of the more deliberate messages in the work - the thing I mentioned about society’s pressures on young girls, and also that it’s okay to tell boys to screw off if they’re mean to you, and to have hope and to look for second chances (Alice thinks she only has one chance to pass the test and believes her life is over when she fails, only to find out she can try again the next year). I love all of that, and the lyrical and whimsical quality of the prose, and the world building is so creative and also makes me a bit hungry (people eat magic in this book, among other things; I wonder what it tastes like). Now...let’s talk about the abuse. That’s my biggest issue with the book. Alice’s mother is a total bitch. And not in a cool, kickass way like the lady in the show Empire. She’s vicious, she’s cruel, and she’s abusive. Alice knows - and the Narrator confirms - that she turned bad when her husband went missing, and apparently the worry for him and the strain of raising four kids on her own is making her hard and sad, but I don’t give a shit. I was hoping Tahereh Mafi would’ve gone all Hansel and Gretel on this lady and when Alice comes home with her dad, the wife’s dead or something. She beats Alice (at one point she beat Alice for chasing a boy out of the place where she was sleeping, even though he kept staring at her in her sleeping clothes, because apparently the boy - Oliver - had the right to break into their barn at 3AM and ogle Alice???), she verbally abuses Alice, she sends her to bed regularly without dinner, is constantly criticizing, won’t hug her or kiss her, and - this one really got me, for some reason - forces her to do illegal things. Those invisible berries I mentioned? Alice can find them and bring back whole baskets because of her magical gift, and so her mom sends her out to pick them all the time. If she brings home enough, her mom smiles. If she doesn’t, her mom yells and calls her names and sometimes beats her. Guess what? Picking those berries is illegal. We don’t find this out until much later in the book, but it is. The thing I didn’t like about the berries is that Oliver, who’s thirteen, is less concerned about Alice’s mother beating her for not picking enough contraband berries and instead focuses on how her ability to find the berries in the first place means Alice has really impressive magic. NOBODY seems to care how much Alice is being abused, not even the Narrator. The Narrator sympathizes with Alice’s hurt feelings and despair over her missing Father, but it’s never objectively stated that her mom is abusing her AND SHE IS. Yeah, her mom is sooo glad to have her back after Alice almost dies on her trip with Oliver, but so what? My roommate’s mom is so abusive that my roommate’s clergy leaders, doctors, and psychological therapist all said my roommate needed to cut ties with said mom, even though my roommate’s mom has also exhibited the same kind of “oh baby I’m so sorry, I love you so much” bullshit. That’s what abusers do. So I hate Alice’s mom. She literally makes her daughter feel like if she doesn’t risk her life numerous times AND bring her father back, there is no chance her mother will ever love her. And if she pulls that stuff off (which she does), then MAYBE her mother will love her. Nuh-uh. Nope. Hate that bitch. Other than that, I really loved this book. The characters felt real (Alice is me, but without my anger), Even the ones I didn’t like were still REAL, and well-drawn. The world building and word choice is fantastic. Basically, if you can get past the evil mom, read this book. World Building: 1 star Realism: 1 star Word Choice: 1 star Plot: 1 star Characterization: 1 star - ¼ star because Oliver Newbanks is an obnoxious little creep - 1 star because the mom is AN ABUSIVE EVIL BITCH - ¼ star because NOBODY DOES ANYTHING ABOUT THAT +½ star because Alice is amazing and has a genius brain and I love her Total score: 4/5 stars Would I Buy It: Yes! I own it and loved it enough I got the sequel for Christmas (in...2017...I've been sitting on this review for months...)! Would I Recommend: yes, but with trigger warnings. Again, highly abusive evil bitch mom who somehow doesn’t die.

[saltwaffle]

hi bud i get where you’re coming from with that post and i know that one person might not make a big difference but although i havent had enough time yet to read i know itll be amazing!! i’ve shared it and i’m waiting for the time i’ll read it, hopefully today, and just wanted to know that i know you work hard on your chapters because theyre honestly the best i’ve ever read, and the story overall is so interesting. i wanted you to know that i love your works a lot and i know you work hard!

(2/2) also i apologize if some of that didn’t make sense but the point is don’t stop writing!! even if you don’t get lots of reviews just don’t give up. but you have all the right to be upset about it just don’t let it bring you don’t too much

thank you 🙁 i know it shouldn’t ruin it for me but it…kinda does? but the people who didnt review are mostly loyal followers who have reviewed chapters before. it began to feel like this was a journey we were taking together and i wrote this last chapter thinking of them, hoping that i could make it the best it could possibly be. but none of them showed.

like i know theyre wonderful people but at the same time it feels like they kinda…gave up on me now that i ended it? like their comments were just a toll they had to pay to get the next chapter, but now that there wont be any more in that particular story (nobody has even MENTIONED the oneshot series and im kind of afraid that they all missed it), they dont care to pay the toll anymore. but thats NOT what i want it to be. i wanted to share this with my friends and enjoy it together.

at risk of sounding too extra, it really feels like im a traveler who was picking up treasures on my journey, and mailing a little bit to each of my friends every once in a while. theyd send me nice letters and sometimes even little treasures back. but then i told them that i’ve come home and the next treasure i send will be the last, and then…i dont hear from any of them again. one or two respond. but there were dozens of them before.

or like im in a play and people applaud every time i do a musical number, but when i stand up to take my final bow theres just. dead silence.

its not that what i get back MATTERS. but after hearing from my readers so much and so quickly, finishing off to virtually no response is really really depressing. i feel like ive failed them. or like im just a service. i appreciate people reblogging and tagging it with “good fic!” but its not the same. i want to TALK to you guys. thats part of why i wrote it in the first place, as an opening so i could talk about characters i loved.

im sorry for the rant. but i really want people to know this. this is really making me rethink where i post my fic. if i can’t even get a response by people from AO3 and tumblr, i dont know if its worth the effort.

[uniformbravo]

alright here are my ocs’ results from that text post

chris: overeager kouhai in a sports anime - he doesn’t have That personality but the concept holds up bc chris does play a Sport so at least the type of anime is accurate. if “overeager” could manifest as “taking every possible opportunity to show off, acting as if everyone is watching/admiring him at all times and aggressively striving to be the team’s ace” then yes

silan: innocent and pure hearted love interest in a romance anime - this is literally exactly him im crying it couldn’t have given me a better result for him (secretly it would be more accurate to say that this is how i personally think of him and not necessarily a true reflection of his character but Still why is my son so pure.... too good for this world)

sythra: exhausted senpai in a sci-fi anime - truuuuu i love the sci-fi anime bit bc it sounds more adventurous and plot-oriented, which is very much sythra’s style, compared to silan who would absolutely be in a cute slice-of-life romance. for all three of them actually, including chris, the genres are completely spot-on (because sythra is like into science n shit i cant believe this)

ok for these next three im crying bc theyre literally all accurate as fuck but each got assigned to the wrong person:

alex: law abiding citizen in a mystery anime - this should’ve been andy, who has too much anxiety to ever break a rule in his life, the only thing hes ever been the perpetrator of is liking sao hdjsjdj (unless “law abiding citizen” is code for “secretly the murderer” in which case this is absolutely alex. in a sense i guess this description could fit him bc it sounds like someone who doesn’t want to get involved and is just trying to mind their own business, which is 100% him)

andy: overly flirty best friend in a boys love anime - this absolutely should’ve gone to chrissy i cannot believe how much this is chrissy and distinctly the exact opposite of andy im reeling

chrissy: the gorgeous megane in a boys love anime - ok ngl the main reason this should go to alex is bc he wears glasses and in the original version of the story i made a big deal out of how attracted andy was to that sO (but alex Does Not have the megane personality he actually hates wearing his glasses rip andy)

aaand the last three are not so great for accuracy whoops (maybe it’s a sign i need to develop these characters more lmaoo)

cairir: underrated sidekick in a boys love anime - i can see it, rip rir (originally i entered just “rir” but it gave me the same result as sythra so i did the full name instead. i can kinda see that one too tho, sci-fi could fit rir if we’re going for the action/adventure angle again, since they really like travelling and exploring)

lucas: muscular show off in a romance anime - i mean kind of?? again im not familiar with the personality type but lucas isn’t very muscular tbh.. he is an asshole tho so i can see some show-offyness in him? i guess?? ok this isn’t rly a good fit tbh bye lucas

devon: the angry kid in a sports anime - ok this one 100% should’ve gone to chris, this ain’t devon at all but it’s very chris, he is an Angery Boy (chris is the overeager kouhai in his backstory but shows up in s1 as the angry kid, u dont unlock his tragic past until episode 7)

god this just made me want to think out aus for all my ocs now Thanks hjsjkdfjjgk

[curly-q-reviews]

ROAD TO THE OSCAR MAYER WIENER AWARDS 2K19

Cold War (original title Zimna wojna), 2018 (dir. Pawel Pawlikowski)

Nominated for: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography

TW SUICIDE MENTION

SPOILER WARNING IM GONNA GIVE AWAY THE ENDING IN THIS REVIEW DONT READ THIS SHIT IF U WANNA WATCH THIS MOVIE OK BYE LOVE U

well shit the oscars is only a week away!!!  and ive only seen like half of the movies i wanted to see!!!  how does this keep happening to me!!!!!!!!!!!

ok well no use crying over spilled milk im just gonna have to go on a massive movie-watching spree this week and try and consume as many films as possible, and in the meantime lets talk about the movie i saw last night.  this is probably the first year ive seen more than one movie in the foreign language film oscar category, mainly just because the foreign language films are typically harder to find unless a local movie theater happens to be playing them as part of an oscars season special event or something.  but now that two of our nominees this year have american distributors it makes watching them a lot easier. 

going into Cold War i had absolutely no idea what it was about except that its set in Poland during the, well, Cold War.  the trailers for this movie didnt really reveal much about the plot or characters, which honestly i kinda prefer with trailers.  sometimes they just give away waaaayyy too much and then whats the point of going to see the movie??  i did know beforehand that its a romance so i at least had that expectation.

and well yeah its a romance all right!!  its a very romeo and juliet star-crossed lovers kinda situation where a student who gets accepted into a state-run polish music academy becomes close with one of the instructors and they fall in love, however life circumstances keep pulling them away from each other over and over again.  the movie spans over a timeline of about a decade and a half, and in this time the two of them find other lovers, get married, travel from country to country, but always end up managing to find each other before theyre separated again by circumstances that usually involve the polish communist state.  so basically communism is a total cock block. 

acting in this movie is overall very solid with not really a weak link in the bunch, except for maybe tomasz kot who played wiktor cause he just felt a lil stiff to me.  however joanna kulig steals the fuckin show for me as zula, shes utterly captivating on screen and really takes advantage of all of the close-up shots of her face throughout this film.  it also helps that shes given a fantastic character to play in zula, shes a spitfire and strong-willed and will not take any mans bullshit but near the end of the film you do get to see her struggle as well.  the shit she has to put up with gets very harrowing at times and u do feel for her

and wiktor goes through his fair share of shitty situations as well, i mean damn he ends up in jail when he goes back to poland for zula and they mangle his hands so badly he’ll never be able to play piano again which was his livelihood.  its pretty tragic how these two people are just like little puppets for the communist state to toss around and play with to their hearts content until theyre both almost destroyed.  and really the whole underlying backdrop of communist poland is really what elevates this story from being just another romeo and juliet clone to something a little more profound. 

ill come back to the story in a bit cause there are a few things i took issue with but i wanna take a moment to praise the music in this film cause holy SHIT its so good.  im honestly really surprised it didnt get any music-related noms cause the music was probably my favorite part of Cold War.  the beginning is full of polish folk music with a full womens choir that sounds just delightful, and then we transition into classic jazz when our lovers end up in paris together in the early 1950′s, and then some american classic rock n’ roll music is thrown into the mix in a few scenes, and then at the end we have a performace thats like a weird polish version of mariachi music??  such a wide and complex musical palette that ebbs and flows with the story, and we also get to see performers doing their thing which is just the icing on the cake. 

so the movie sounds fantastic, and i mean i gotta say it looks fantastic too!  like Roma, Cold War is shot in black and white, which definitely fits the time period its set in and fits especially well with the jazz scenes.  we get a lot of close-up shots of peoples faces, but theyre balanced out well with wide shots that tend to put the focal points in the bottom third of the screen which i thought was an interesting touch.  gave it a very art house feel.  from what i could tell there were mostly still shots except for a few dance scenes, which kept the movie very grounded and kinda added a sense of realism.

so i think thats all the good shit i have to say and i wanna touch on the ending for the last part of this review, cause to be frank, this movie ended so abruptly it gave me whiplash.  i was going into this film expecting it to be like 2 hours long but the run time clocks in at just under an hour and thirty minutes.  usually this isnt a bad thing at all especially for quieter movies like this that take their time, but in this case it couldve used AT LEAST another ten to twenty minutes.  so wiktor is let out of prison early because his commie friend pulled some strings (probably due to zulas insistence) and we find out that zula has married this commie state official and had a kid with him.  and she now works as a performer (probably working for the state like she did when she was with the music academy) singing weird polish mariachi music.  shes clearly drunk off her ass when she sees that wiktor is out, runs to the bathroom to puke, and then he finds her in there and they decide to run away together again.  but its implied that this time its more of an uuhhh permanent escape.  like, PERMANENT permanent.  like no-longer-living permanent.  and this is the point of the movie where im like “oh god really theyre gonna keep THIS part of the romeo and juliet story they really think thats a good idea”

and then the next scene we see them going to an abandoned run-down church that was shown in the beginning of the movie, and they both have what looks like a shit ton of pills out in front of them.  they say wedding vows, then each take half of the giant pile of pills, and then go to watch the sunset.  and then thats where the movie ends.  it just like cuts to credits and thats it. 

idk man it just doesnt have the amount of emotional gravitas that i feel like a scene like that should have.  and it escalates so quickly too, like one minute theyre in a bathroom and the next theyre on a bus and the next theyre at the church with the pills in front of them.  its hard to explain how abrupt it all felt watching it, u have to see it for urself to get what i mean.  the pacing was just really off in the last third of this film, and with the severity of the act theyre committing u’d think the director would wanna spend more time on it.

so other than that i’d say if u like foreign films and good period pieces this is one to check out, i’d give it like a 7/10.  if anything go see it just to listen to the music cause good god its so gorgeous im gettin my hands on this soundtrack. 

OK Y’ALL i got lots of reviewing to do in the next few days so u’ll be seeing a log of long-ass posts from me soon!  i think The Favorite is on amazon video now so ill watch that for sure sometime this week, and then god knows what else i’ll watch i’ll just have to play it by ear.  have a relaxing fun and fresh sunday y’all try not to let the idea of having to go to school/work tomorrow fill u with too much existential dread  ;)